Children’s home faces closure

INDIANAPOLIS – Opponents of the state’s plan to close a home for troubled children in Knightstown are planning a Statehouse rally to press their cause.

The American Legion’s Indiana branch said Wednesday its attorneys also had made a formal request to the state health department for release of a study it cited as the basis for the decision to close the Indiana Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Children’s Home.

The health department plans to close the home about 25 miles east of Indianapolis and move the 114 students, grades 5-12, into community settings in May. The agency cited the costs to renovate and maintain the facility, which was founded in 1865 to care for children of Civil War veterans.

The American Legion and the school’s alumni association plan to hold their rally at 10 a.m. Monday in the Statehouse.